Back to Iraq

December 3, 2004 11:25 AM

She's baaaaaaaack! Farnaz Fassihi, the Wall Street Journal reporter whose private e-mail to friends lamented the dangers of reporting in Iraq and criticized the Bush administration's war policy, is returning to her war beat next week for the first time since her missive sparked a controversy in October. Reports that she was being punished by her newspaper for the e-mail were apparently false. Her e-mail brought her unexpected attention, raised issues about whether reporters covering Iraq were telling the whole story, prompted some introspection in journalism circles, and led a variety of news outlets to confirm her dour outlook (last link is a reprinted NYT article). Previously discussed here.
posted by owenville (4 comments total)

More info here.

As an aside, I should add that I am a distant acquaintance of Fassihi's from several years ago, and know some people who worked with her before she went to the WSJ. We were all uniformly surprised to read her email.... not because we knew her, but because she had always gotten by on moxie and had never been a very good writer. Apparently, life in a war zone can clarify anyone's thinking.
posted by owenville at 11:29 AM on December 3, 2004

owenville, just make sure to forward your MeFi brethren any new e-mails she'll send you from war zones...
posted by matteo at 11:49 AM on December 3, 2004

heh. I was never on her mailing list.
posted by owenville at 12:06 PM on December 3, 2004

Good links, good post.
posted by languagehat at 2:10 PM on December 3, 2004